Pak to hold inter-ministerial meeting on Indian talks offer

Pakistan will hold high-level confabulations in Islamabad on Wednesday to discuss India’s
offer for Foreign Secretary-level talks amid its insistence that such a meeting should lead to the full-fledged resumption of the composite dialogue.

Pakistan is in a dilemma over the Indian offer of talks which is confined to discuss terrorism and is in the process of formulating a response.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi will chair the inter-ministerial meeting at the Foreign Office to assess the Indian offer of talks, after which a clearer picture of Pakistan’s response is expected to emerge.

The meeting is expected to be attended by representatives of the interior and defence ministries and the intelligence agencies, including the ISI.

India’s offer for talks, conveyed by Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao last month, was the subject of in-house consultations at the Foreign Office on Monday.

India has offered February 18 and 25 as possible dates for a meeting of the Foreign Secretaries. During Monday’s consultations, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir favoured the adoption of a cautious approach by Pakistan and made it clear that any parleys with India should lead to the eventual resumption of the composite dialogue that was stalled in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai
terror attacks, the sources told PTI.

India has offered Foreign Secretary-level talks as part of a “practical and pragmatic” approach to seek redressal of its core concern of cross-border terrorism.

New Delhi has underlined that the proposed Foreign Secretary-level talks would not mean resumption of composite dialogue even though it is ready to discuss whatever issue Pakistan raises, including Balochistan, as it wants to deal with the situation in a “mature” and “confident” manner.

There was resistance in Pakistan to accepting talks under a new framework or holding parleys that did not lead to the restoration of the composite dialogue, the sources said.

During any parleys, there would have to be some sort of understanding that composite dialogue would be revived, they said.

When Rao conveyed the offer of talks to Bashir, she gave no indication about the resumption of the composite dialogue that began in 2004. She only said India was willing to discuss terrorism and other issues “hurting” bilateral relations.

On the other hand, Pakistan has been insisting on the resumption of the composite dialogue process that covers eight issues, including the Kashmir dispute.

Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit has said that the two countries already have an established framework for parleys and there is “no need to reinvent the wheel”.

At the same time, the Foreign Office is faced with a dilemma as it does not want Pakistan to be seen as spurning the Indian offer for talks.

Meanwhile, the Daily Times newspaper quoted diplomatic sources as saying that Pakistan might adopt a “tough stance” over India’s offer for talks and press for “result-oriented dialogue” linked to a timeline for resolving all outstanding issues, including the Kashmir dispute.

The daily said Pakistan is wary of an “open-ended” peace process that could linger for years without any tangible progress on key issues that have impacted bilateral relations for decades.
Pakistan wants a “fruitful engagement that will result in the solution of real problems and help bring peace,” it said.

Islamabad would also seek New Delhi’s assurance that it will not unilaterally suspend the peace process in case of a terrorist attack by “non-state actors,” the sources added.

Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India Shahid Malik has been summoned to Islamabad to attend consultations at the Foreign Office and brief the government on his meetings with Indian officials, including Foreign Secretary Rao.

The peace process was suspended by India after the Mumbai attacks in November 2008. Since then, India has linked the resumption of talks to Pakistan taking action against the perpetrators of the attacks.

Let’s pick up where we left off, and talk more about Drip Marketing. But this time, more specifically about how you can set up truly effective email drip campaigns. In the last post, we discussed at length about what exactly drip marketing entails and several examples to inspire your own nurturing campaigns. But as Frank Herbert... [Read More]The post 5 Step […]

Amit was having an exceptionally bad day. No lead seemed interested in his product, despite calling dozens of them. He had been a sales guy for over 3 years, he knew that he wasn’t giving them a wrong pitch – the leads, just weren’t right. Exactly one floor above, Namrata – the marketing head wasn’t... [Read More]The post 5 Ways How Marketing Automation Soft […]

Does this ever happen between your sales and marketing teams? Marketers spend a lot of time, effort and money to create compelling campaigns, optimize them to generate leads, set auto-responders and alerts to connect with them promptly, before finally delivering the leads to the sales team. Many sales people do not even know these terms, but they very... [Re […]

A few months ago, we conducted a webinar on Google Adwords. After the session, questions poured in. Among all the questions about keyword match types, conversion rates and campaign structure, there was one question that kept appearing – how to increase CTR in Google Adwords? It’s a fair question, but before we get to that, there’s one thing... [Read More]The […]

It is a farmer’s delight to see the seeds he has sown bear fruit. But ask a farmer, it’s not that straightforward. While too much water may spoil the crops, too little would cause them to wither. The farmer has to ensure that the crops get an adequate amount of water at the right time. And... [Read More]The post 9 Creative Drip Marketing Ideas to Boost Your […]

It wasn’t very long ago that salespeople used pen and paper to note down the sales enquiries, scribbling down the details of prospective buyers. After a while, computers took over and digital notepads replaced paper, which were finally replaced by web forms. To state the obvious, this means that businesses don’t need to note down the information anymore –... […]

Last time AdNabu‘s Salil joined us for a Google Adwords tutorial session, he shared quite a few PPC tips that Adwords beginners can use. You can check out the recording here, and the questions asked during the session here. This time around, we wanted him to discuss things that are a little more advanced, and the session was a... [Read More]The post Google A […]

We were expecting breaking news on the American Elections. We sure as hell did not expect this – Our beloved PM Narendra Modiji announcing the demonetization of the 500 and 1000 Rupee notes The impact it had was definitely BIG. It set the Twitteratis in a frenzy, with constant tweets, hilarious memes and endless opinions.... [Read More]The post 6 Real-time M […]

Marketing involves a lot of ambiguous activities, and hence might just be the most misunderstood function in the business! Do you feel my pain? As marketers, we are always struggling to find metrics beyond the superficial vanity ones (likes, shares and traffic) to show for our efforts. In addition, constant experimentation and monitoring is also... [Read Mor […]

Media coverage can be hard to come by even for long-established companies, but it’s significantly harder for startups. Hacking the Media: How to Get Media Coverage for Your Travel Startup In our last webinar, travel marketing expert, Tanu Arora from TravHQ – a travel marketing and media website, joined us to discuss, how to get media coverage... [Read More]T […]

#Chennai was washed away and everything stood still...This had never happened before... nobody was prepared for this.My child and I were alone and with no electricity and dead phone lines...I could not reach out to loved ones and they could not reach me...What in the world was happening??Totally cut off from civilisation...Life was in animated suspension for […]

Today I hold my child a little closerMy kiss lingers a little longerI laugh at his jokes a little harder Appreciate his handmade birthday card a little louder...I'm scared... Scared for my child's futureWhy should anyone be a victim of terrorWhy should so many innocent suffer?Why can't the killers be the ones in the coffer?My tears don't […]

My latest release from the film 'ISAI' Composed and Directed by Mr.S.J.Surya. A kuthu song with english lyrics penned by moi... so excited to have had the opportunity to sing and write such a fun filled peppy number. Hope you all like it!

Picture taken at the event celebrating '100 years of Cinema' at Nehru Indoor Stadium. I had the opportunity of taking a pic with the great legend Mr.Yesudas, Sriniji and Manoji.- Posted using BlogPress from my iPadLocation:Nehru Indoor Stadium

Many years ago... I would look at an office goer/ 9-5 er and think... they are so lucky... why you wonder...well... lets go back to when I was 5. It started out as a mere song to be sung on stage, but evolved into a mammoth production were I was required to sing and dance holding the worlds biggest heaviest mic(I wish I had a pic) with a choir of 30 being sh […]

There are so many things happening around us... new ventures, new inventions,new discoveries.... there is so much to know... on one hand you discover that there are these new #google cars that dont need a driver... and that is instantly stale news when they come out with the new google glass! Felix Baumgartner jumps off the edge of space and an adrenaline ju […]